Review of Rampage (2018) by Kyle L — 15 Jul 2018

Rampage is a fun film that is different to its video game counterpart but acts as an entertaining blockbuster movie for wider audiences to have a good time at the cinema and is one of The Rock's most well known films in his big time career up to this point.

The story is about Davis Okoye, a Primatologist living his life day by day with his albino gorilla friend George whom he saved from Poachers. One day, when he returns to visit George; Davis finds him growing in height after touching a mysterious chemical that also affected his aggression.

He meets a former scientist who knows what is truly happening to his friend and Davis is desperate to cure his friend unaware that George is not the only animal with the same problem as he and two other animals began tearing Chicago apart.

This is one of the most fun blockbuster films I have ever watched and although I never played the video game it was based on, Rampage is the film that takes video game adaptations to a whole new territory from other video game based films.

I think of all the recent movies based on video games, Rampage and the new Tomb Raider reboot are the ones worth watching while the rest are down in the trash. What satisfied me with this film is that it relied on having a few of the game's ideas while avoiding in making it faithful as possible which are always the big flaws of other video game adaptations.

Rampage is the one live action video game film that worked well enough on this execution because it took some of the animals names from the popular games like Lizzie the mutated alligator, the aforementioned mutated albino gorilla George and the thirty foot mutated wolf Ralph but ended up creating a story of its own and sets it on a grounded basis which is what director Brad Peyton did for this movie while focusing on good character development at the same time and it really worked well enough to keep everyone entertained in the best way other than the longtime gamers.

This film sets itself apart in avoiding all the major mistakes that past video game movies have done for more than twenty-five years when it started out with the Super Mario Bros. adaptation in 1993. Rampage managed to dodge that mistake for all the right reasons and its by far a fresh take into the world of movies based on video games, if the studio can continue this technique then this is the solution to answer all video game adaptations issues from the past.

If the execution lived up to the hype, so does the effects and story. The CGI here is done so well and looking at the CG giant animals made the movie come to life as we see how the world of Computer Generated Imagery has evolved over the years that started out in the 90s until the reboot Planet Of The Apes films from Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes to its follow-ups Dawn and War For The Planet Of The Apes.

There are lots of action scenes that are pure blockbuster fun while combining some good old fashioned humor that it is known for today (The opening space attack with another animal, the giant wolf hunt in the woods, George attacking his captives in the plane, the destruction of Chicago against the three mutated animals, George attacking the main characters from the top of the tallest building and the finale where George fights Lizzie and Ralph with the help of Davis).

Plus I love how the humor was well used in certain parts (George teasing Davis by giving him the middle finger) as an opportunity of lightening the mood of the film for fun. The acting here is good, all the casts here deliver great performances like Naomie Harris as Davis' sidekick.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Agent Harvey Russell and he can handle a Southern accent so well. Joe Manganiello as Burke. Malin Akerman is good with her performance as the main villain Claire. But the biggest superstar of them all is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, after having a breakout with four Fast and The Furious movies including a big time performance in Jumanji Welcome To The Jungle and now this film and his most recent movie to date, Skyscraper.

The Rock is now slowly becoming a successful mainstream actor as he starts to appear in more successful films in his filmography that will appeal to the audiences around the world and its great to see how he transformed from a wrestler to a big time movie star.

Director and Writer Brad Peyton is also becoming one of the most well known up and coming film directors today, he and The Rock are perfect collaborators. After working on the epic disaster film, San Andreas, the duo has done it again in their third collaboration Rampage and I look forward to see more future films from these two again.

Overall, Rampage is a video game adaptation that works also on its own as an entertaining blockbuster film for the mainstream audiences and long time video game players. This film gets a 10/10.